A Secret Long Kept
by patriarcheyes
Summary: Zhade Secura, twi'lek jedi is not known by many. It's mostly because of the fact that she is a special ops jedi, most seriously Plo? She can't even meet her fellow jedi until she's in her twenties? Over-protective much? Anyway, take a journey (I know, cliche) into her world as possibly the only secret jedi.
1. A Meeting Long Awaited

_All characters that are not my own belong to George Lucas, Dave Filoni, Disney, Lucas Films, and others. I do not own any of them._

Jedi Master Plo Koon looked around at his troops. We were all good soldiers. But, they might not take this very "Men, I need to introduce you to someone." The Wolf Pack stood at attention.

'I wonder what the general could be doing' Commander CC-3636, or Wolffe, thought. They had just gotten deployed a couple months prior, and all of the 104th battalion was still getting used to the way the jedi acted. He was by far a good general, but it seemed that he cared too much about the clones. They were replaceable, of course. They were clones, copies of a single dead bounty hunter. Besides, he doesn't need our approval from us to introduce someone, he's the kriffing general. "Yes sir," the ship rang out as it flew through hyper-space back to Coruscant.

"As you know, Jedi can often train new padawans, but it is usually public business. But, I have been training one of my own. Many people, even jedis do not know of this jedi in training. She is a knight, and is completing her training with me. She was trained as a padawan by Master Yoda," Plo admitted. He knew this was a risk, but in order for both the troopers and his knight to advance in their training they had to be prepared for unthought of circumstances.

A few of the men looked around. They had never heard of a secret jedi. "When we dock in Coruscant, we will not go to the barracks straight away. We will be going to a secret landing zone. You will meet her their." Plo continued. He turned back to the windows of the transportation ship. We would be docking soon.

As they docked to the landing space, the men along with the well-known general neared the ship's entrance. As the doors slowly opened, they could see a figure. When the doors were fully opened, Plo Koon stepped out into the city-filled world and walked towards the women, with the soldiers following, catching glances with their brothers. What were they to expect from an unknown jedi? Plo Koon called out into the smog filled air, "Zhade, how nice to see you. Come meet my men, the 104th." Hesitantly, the women stepped out of the shadows to reveal a pale-purple twi'lek. She looked fairly shorter than the clones and the general.

She smiled to Plo as she returned with a jokingly, "Plo, good to see you. I thought you wouldn't get here for another couple light-years."

"War does take time, my sweetling," causing the alien to blush a patriarch-shade.

'Sweetling? Aren't the jedi forbidden from attachments?' Wolffe thought. This was getting weirder by the second.

"Oh stop," she nudged the general's armor covered shoulder. She swept her eyes across the troopers with a content smile on her face. "Nice to meet you, my name is Zhade Secura," with a slight salute to them.

"Men, as I said, this is my knight-in-training, Zhade Secura. She will be joining our ranks as a second commander until she becomes a master. She will explain her rank in the jedi circuit at the barracks" Plo introduced as he beckoned for them all to get back to the ship.

It was silent on the way back to their original destination. The men did a sweep over her. She looked fairly young, younger looking than the clones did. She was wearing a standard headdress made with dark silver fabric. The young women dressed in a platinum top that with off the shoulder sleeves that bellowed out and then collected back to an end a little lower than her elbow. It had two cut-outs on her side of each side of her sides. Her belly-dancer type pants that the clones had seen some clones in clubs wear where a midnight color that matched the color of her combat boots. She wore black fingerless gloves. Her brown belt with a standard loincloth in the middle held a single lightsaber. Still, that name was nagging in all the clone's heads. Haven't they heard that name before. Secura? It sounded so familiar. Her eyes looked slightly familiar as well, the hazel hues contrasting from the lilac shade. Wolffe racked his brain, and it popped. The new jedi knight General Secura! It couldn't be though. He decided to ask either the general or the new commander that he would surely be working with when they docked.

"I must report back from our battle," General Koon explained as he walked away. 'I hope we will all get along, but they will have to if they want to succeed in this war'. When he put on the holomessage to contact the jedi of their success, Master Yoda showed in the blue hue.

"Master Plo Koon, succeeded in this battle on Teth, I sense you have?"

"Yes master. Is anyone else with you at this time?"

"No, alone I am. In my temple quarters, I am."

"Good. My troops met Zhade after the battle. Knowing her, she is probably introducing her and what her rank is at this moment. "

"Very well. Long overdue, this meeting has been."

"I have a question though Master Yoda. Should we still keep her existence to the jedi who have not met her yet? I think that she should meet Aayla at the very least. They could become a good pair."

"Hmm." "Long overdue, this reunion is, but a secret, this must be kept. To be able to work with only herself and her men, jedi Aayla must. After almost turning to the dark side, work this out on her own, she must."

"With all due respect Master, that is my point. I think a little personal help would help her and Zhade."

"Get your point, I do. Unfortunately, give up our plans for a special operation jedi, this might. Advise the decision, I do not."

Plo sighed. He had a point. "I understand Master Yoda."

"Hard decision for myself, it is. But, do what is necessary we must. See you at the temple, I will."

"I understand. Where should Zhade stay?"

"At your barracks, she must. Not let anyone in, you must."

"I understand Master. Plo Koon out." After a nod from the old jedi, the general shut off the hologram. He ran his hand over his head. 'This will take time' he decided.

Meanwhile, as Master Koon had suspected, the mystery jedi was introducing herself. "So…" she mumbled as it cut through the awkward silence. "You can speak freely, you know."

Wolffe let out a short breath. 'Might as well.' "Are you related to another jedi, by the name of General Aayla Secura?" The new commander gave a weird look.

"No, I've never heard of that person." she replied. She would have to ask Master Koon. "As you know I'm under the training of Master Koon. I was originally trained from Master Yoda. He was my master through my padawan years. When I became a knight, I began training with Plo. He's been my master for a little over three years."

"So, how old are you, twenty?" Sinker commented. The new commander gave the slightest glare that you could miss if you weren't looking or blinked before giving a brief smile. 'Great, we've pissed her off already.'

"I know, I'm short. I am twenty-eight." She answered. Before anyone would ask anything else, Plo Koon came back into the quarters, "You all are dismissed." "Master, can I ask you something?"

"Of course. What is it?"

Who is...Aayla Secura?" She asked hesitantly. She winced internally as she observed the slight change in her master's composure.

"Where did you hear that name?" He knew he would have to reveal the secret someday, but not now.

"One of the men, the one with the right eye removed, asked me if I knew who they were." She responded nervously. She didn't want one of the troopers to get trouble because of her snooping.

Sensing her worries, her calmly stated, "I will not do anything to Commander Wolffe." 'Now to the hard part'. "You see, Zhade, we have kept a secret that we shouldn't have. Aayla Secura, another twi'lek jedi knight like yourself, is," He paused. Should he tell her? It could cause unwanted emotions and affect her training. "Well, she is your younger sister."

Silence overtook the room. Zhade wore a shocked expression on her face. Suddenly, Plo felt a wave of emotions roll over his. Anger, confusion, fear, happiness, worry, shock, anguish, horror, and many other emotions that he could not comprehend hit him, causing him to take a step back. "What?" she whispered.

"I'm sorry for keeping this secret from you," Plo hurriedly explained as he rushed over her to put a reassuring shoulder on the young twi'lek's shoulder, "Master Yoda and I agreed to not tell you or her because it might affect you and your training."

She suddenly felt a wave of anger come at her, "You still could've told me. If anything, it could of helped. I would have wanted to know I had a kriffing sister!" She backed away, now full out glaring at him. She couldn't believe them. Screw the order, she would've wanted to know!

Feeling her anger, he replied, "I didn't want to keep this from you, and neither did Master Yoda. But, we found it would be for the best in your special training. I'm sorry Zhade, I know I should have told you. We can go over her information if you want?" Moving to hug her, he felt her sag onto his taller figure, putting her face into his shoulder. A muffled "okay" could be heard as Plo felt the anger and anguish drain out of the small figure.

She stuck her head out to rest it out on the Kel Dor's shoulder. "I'll go get something to eat," and sulked away. Her head was racing. How? What did she look like? Did we look similar? How many years younger was she? Did she have a battalion? Who trained her? All these questions abruptly came to a halt as she slammed into a armored chest. Going into self-defense, she force-pushed the person away. Snapping her head up, she saw that, in embarrassment, she was getting stared at by the whole mess that had cleared of sound as a bewildered Commander Wolffe has pushed against the foot of a table. Blushed rapidly across her cheeks and lekku, she rushed to help the soldier up. "Sorry, I was thinking," she muttered. Ducking her head down, she grabbed a random ration cube and started to speed walk out of the mess. Someone grabbed her arm though. Turning around hesitantly, she looked up to see a slightly smirking Wolffe.

"You're not leaving yet are you? You must of been thinking pretty hard to not see where you were going and thinking you were in danger."

Rolling her eyes as the blush slowly appeared on the tips of her freckled lekkus. "I said sorry."

"Yeah, yeah. I heard. You might want to look at the flavor of ration bar before picking it up. Some are disgusting," He explained as he led her to a table where all of men had wolves painted on a shoulder.

Thinking quickly she retorted, "I'm not picky." As they sat down, one of the men flicked his eyes between the two commanders and smirked.

"Already got on, Wolffe?" Both commanders rolled her eyes, the twi'lek looking mildly disturbed. 'Match made in heaven' as Wolffe flipped the other trooper off.

Zhade noticed him as the one who had asked about her age. Wolffe spoke up with an annoyed tone, "This is Sinker. The others are Tracer, Comet, and Boost. We call ourselves the Wolf Pack. We're picked as an elite type of squad." She looked across the men in the order he had named them, the distinctions that she could make out were that Boost had two stripes of hair colored a murky brown, Tracer had one line of black hair on his bald head, and Sinker had grey hair. She nodded at them all. Taking the advice Wolffe gave her, she looked at the flavor. 'Lemon, couldn't be that bad.'

Sinker smirked even more as the younger commander tried to cover her gag with a cough. "We warned you," he commented in a singsong voice, causing the alien to flip him off with a glare. He looked around, and saw that Wolffe was smothering a silent laugh.

"How do you live of these things. I mean, I've had my share, but lemon? Ugh," Zhade protested in a hushed voice as she chugged her water down.

"Metabolism the speed of lightspeed has it's ups and downs," Wolffe replied as he gained his composure. He saw Commander Secura's eyes light up in understanding.

"So, how old are all of you?" She questioned. Sure they looked in their thirties, but she had heard of how they speed-grew the soldiers to make more in minimum amounts of time. She saw the men look around.

"Well, we aren't all from the same batch, but we're all around twenty," Boost admitted. Sinker looked away.

"Not so young after all, am I?" Zhade smirked. Sinker rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah. Anyways, I happen to like lemon, and I chose strawberry accidentally," Sinker retorted as his face scrunched up at the mention of the "vile" flavor.

Zhade shrugged, "Might as well," as she traded her ration. Crunching her teeth into the meal, she nodded. "Not bad," she turned to Wolffe, "Actually, Master Koon told me why you had heard of my last name before," said commander raised his eyebrow in question. "It turns out that I apparently I have a younger sister, that's a jedi," with a thin smile as they could hear the slight annoyance in her voice.

"They didn't tell you?!" astonishment filled Boost's voice. Bewilderment took over the other member's faces.

"Yep," they could clearly hear the emotional straining through her voice, "turns out that they didn't tell me since it might mess up my training."

'Wow', Comet thought, 'I couldn't imagine not having my brothers by my side.' Before they could carry on, Plo Koon emerged from the doors of the mess hall.

"It's past everybody's shifts that are happening, time for curfew if you are done in the mess hall and gym," he stated. He saw his trainee stifle a laugh before she looked around and, realized he was serious, dropped her jaw and raise one of her contrasting blond brows. He knew he shouldn't have let Yoda take her out on her twenty first birthday. Focusing once more on the mess, he saw many of his troopers leaving, and the Wolf Pack leading the twi'lek to the rest of the ship. Oh god.


	2. Getting to Know Clones

_All characters that are not my own belong to George Lucas, Dave Filoni, Disney, Lucas Films, and others. I do not own any of them._

Jedi Master Plo Koon looked around at his troops. We were all good soldiers. But, they might not take this very "Men, I need to introduce you to someone." The Wolf Pack stood at attention.

'I wonder what the general could be doing' Commander CC-3636, or Wolffe, thought. They had just gotten deployed a couple months prior, and all of the 104th battalion was still getting used to the way the jedi acted. He was by far a good general, but it seemed that he cared too much about the clones. They were replaceable, of course. They were clones, copies of a single dead bounty hunter. Besides, he doesn't need our approval from us to introduce someone, he's the kriffing general. "Yes sir," the ship rang out as it flew through hyper-space back to Coruscant.

"As you know, Jedi can often train new padawans, but it is usually public business. But, I have been training one of my own. Many people, even jedis do not know of this jedi in training. She is a knight, and is completing her training with me. She was trained as a padawan by Master Yoda," Plo admitted. He knew this was a risk, but in order for both the troopers and his knight to advance in their training they had to be prepared for unthought of circumstances.

A few of the men looked around. They had never heard of a secret jedi. "When we dock in Coruscant, we will not go to the barracks straight away. We will be going to a secret landing zone. You will meet her their." Plo continued. He turned back to the windows of the transportation ship. We would be docking soon.

As they docked to the landing space, the men along with the well-known general neared the ship's entrance. As the doors slowly opened, they could see a figure. When the doors were fully opened, Plo Koon stepped out into the city-filled world and walked towards the women, with the soldiers following, catching glances with their brothers. What were they to expect from an unknown jedi? Plo Koon called out into the smog filled air, "Zhade, how nice to see you. Come meet my men, the 104th." Hesitantly, the women stepped out of the shadows to reveal a pale-purple twi'lek. She looked fairly shorter than the clones and the general.

She smiled to Plo as she returned with a jokingly, "Plo, good to see you. I thought you wouldn't get here for another couple light-years."

"War does take time, my sweetling," causing the alien to blush a patriarch-shade.

'Sweetling? Aren't the jedi forbidden from attachments?' Wolffe thought. This was getting weirder by the second.

"Oh stop," she nudged the general's armor covered shoulder. She swept her eyes across the troopers with a content smile on her face. "Nice to meet you, my name is Zhade Secura," with a slight salute to them.

"Men, as I said, this is my knight-in-training, Zhade Secura. She will be joining our ranks as a second commander until she becomes a master. She will explain her rank in the jedi circuit at the barracks" Plo introduced as he beckoned for them all to get back to the ship.

It was silent on the way back to their original destination. The men did a sweep over her. She looked fairly young, younger looking than the clones did. She was wearing a standard headdress made with dark silver fabric. The young women dressed in a platinum top that with off the shoulder sleeves that bellowed out and then collected back to an end a little lower than her elbow. It had two cut-outs on her side of each side of her sides. Her belly-dancer type pants that the clones had seen some clones in clubs wear where a midnight color that matched the color of her combat boots. She wore black fingerless gloves. Her brown belt with a standard loincloth in the middle held a single lightsaber. Still, that name was nagging in all the clone's heads. Haven't they heard that name before. Secura? It sounded so familiar. Her eyes looked slightly familiar as well, the hazel hues contrasting from the lilac shade. Wolffe racked his brain, and it popped. The new jedi knight General Secura! It couldn't be though. He decided to ask either the general or the new commander that he would surely be working with when they docked.

"I must report back from our battle," General Koon explained as he walked away. 'I hope we will all get along, but they will have to if they want to succeed in this war'. When he put on the holomessage to contact the jedi of their success, Master Yoda showed in the blue hue.

"Master Plo Koon, succeeded in this battle on Teth, I sense you have?"

"Yes master. Is anyone else with you at this time?"

"No, alone I am. In my temple quarters, I am."

"Good. My troops met Zhade after the battle. Knowing her, she is probably introducing her and what her rank is at this moment. "

"Very well. Long overdue, this meeting has been."

"I have a question though Master Yoda. Should we still keep her existence to the jedi who have not met her yet? I think that she should meet Aayla at the very least. They could become a good pair."

"Hmm." "Long overdue, this reunion is, but a secret, this must be kept. To be able to work with only herself and her men, jedi Aayla must. After almost turning to the dark side, work this out on her own, she must."

"With all due respect Master, that is my point. I think a little personal help would help her and Zhade."

"Get your point, I do. Unfortunately, give up our plans for a special operation jedi, this might. Advise the decision, I do not."

Plo sighed. He had a point. "I understand Master Yoda."

"Hard decision for myself, it is. But, do what is necessary we must. See you at the temple, I will."

"I understand. Where should Zhade stay?"

"At your barracks, she must. Not let anyone in, you must."

"I understand Master. Plo Koon out." After a nod from the old jedi, the general shut off the hologram. He ran his hand over his head. 'This will take time' he decided.

Meanwhile, as Master Koon had suspected, the mystery jedi was introducing herself. "So…" she mumbled as it cut through the awkward silence. "You can speak freely, you know."

Wolffe let out a short breath. 'Might as well.' "Are you related to another jedi, by the name of General Aayla Secura?" The new commander gave a weird look.

"No, I've never heard of that person." she replied. She would have to ask Master Koon. "As you know I'm under the training of Master Koon. I was originally trained from Master Yoda. He was my master through my padawan years. When I became a knight, I began training with Plo. He's been my master for a little over three years."

"So, how old are you, twenty?" Sinker commented. The new commander gave the slightest glare that you could miss if you weren't looking or blinked before giving a brief smile. 'Great, we've pissed her off already.'

"I know, I'm short. I am twenty-eight." She answered. Before anyone would ask anything else, Plo Koon came back into the quarters, "You all are dismissed." "Master, can I ask you something?"

"Of course. What is it?"

Who is...Aayla Secura?" She asked hesitantly. She winced internally as she observed the slight change in her master's composure.

"Where did you hear that name?" He knew he would have to reveal the secret someday, but not now.

"One of the men, the one with the right eye removed, asked me if I knew who they were." She responded nervously. She didn't want one of the troopers to get trouble because of her snooping.

Sensing her worries, her calmly stated, "I will not do anything to Commander Wolffe." 'Now to the hard part'. "You see, Zhade, we have kept a secret that we shouldn't have. Aayla Secura, another twi'lek jedi knight like yourself, is," He paused. Should he tell her? It could cause unwanted emotions and affect her training. "Well, she is your younger sister."

Silence overtook the room. Zhade wore a shocked expression on her face. Suddenly, Plo felt a wave of emotions roll over his. Anger, confusion, fear, happiness, worry, shock, anguish, horror, and many other emotions that he could not comprehend hit him, causing him to take a step back. "What?" she whispered.

"I'm sorry for keeping this secret from you," Plo hurriedly explained as he rushed over her to put a reassuring shoulder on the young twi'lek's shoulder, "Master Yoda and I agreed to not tell you or her because it might affect you and your training."

She suddenly felt a wave of anger come at her, "You still could've told me. If anything, it could of helped. I would have wanted to know I had a kriffing sister!" She backed away, now full out glaring at him. She couldn't believe them. Screw the order, she would've wanted to know!

Feeling her anger, he replied, "I didn't want to keep this from you, and neither did Master Yoda. But, we found it would be for the best in your special training. I'm sorry Zhade, I know I should have told you. We can go over her information if you want?" Moving to hug her, he felt her sag onto his taller figure, putting her face into his shoulder. A muffled "okay" could be heard as Plo felt the anger and anguish drain out of the small figure.

She stuck her head out to rest it out on the Kel Dor's shoulder. "I'll go get something to eat," and sulked away. Her head was racing. How? What did she look like? Did we look similar? How many years younger was she? Did she have a battalion? Who trained her? All these questions abruptly came to a halt as she slammed into a armored chest. Going into self-defense, she force-pushed the person away. Snapping her head up, she saw that, in embarrassment, she was getting stared at by the whole mess that had cleared of sound as a bewildered Commander Wolffe has pushed against the foot of a table. Blushed rapidly across her cheeks and lekku, she rushed to help the soldier up. "Sorry, I was thinking," she muttered. Ducking her head down, she grabbed a random ration cube and started to speed walk out of the mess. Someone grabbed her arm though. Turning around hesitantly, she looked up to see a slightly smirking Wolffe.

"You're not leaving yet are you? You must of been thinking pretty hard to not see where you were going and thinking you were in danger."

Rolling her eyes as the blush slowly appeared on the tips of her freckled lekkus. "I said sorry."

"Yeah, yeah. I heard. You might want to look at the flavor of ration bar before picking it up. Some are disgusting," He explained as he led her to a table where all of men had wolves painted on a shoulder.

Thinking quickly she retorted, "I'm not picky." As they sat down, one of the men flicked his eyes between the two commanders and smirked.

"Already got on, Wolffe?" Both commanders rolled her eyes, the twi'lek looking mildly disturbed. 'Match made in heaven' as Wolffe flipped the other trooper off.

Zhade noticed him as the one who had asked about her age. Wolffe spoke up with an annoyed tone, "This is Sinker. The others are Tracer, Comet, and Boost. We call ourselves the Wolf Pack. We're picked as an elite type of squad." She looked across the men in the order he had named them, the distinctions that she could make out were that Boost had two stripes of hair colored a murky brown, Tracer had one line of black hair on his bald head, and Sinker had grey hair. She nodded at them all. Taking the advice Wolffe gave her, she looked at the flavor. 'Lemon, couldn't be that bad.'

Sinker smirked even more as the younger commander tried to cover her gag with a cough. "We warned you," he commented in a singsong voice, causing the alien to flip him off with a glare. He looked around, and saw that Wolffe was smothering a silent laugh.

"How do you live of these things. I mean, I've had my share, but lemon? Ugh," Zhade protested in a hushed voice as she chugged her water down.

"Metabolism the speed of lightspeed has it's ups and downs," Wolffe replied as he gained his composure. He saw Commander Secura's eyes light up in understanding.

"So, how old are all of you?" She questioned. Sure they looked in their thirties, but she had heard of how they speed-grew the soldiers to make more in minimum amounts of time. She saw the men look around.

"Well, we aren't all from the same batch, but we're all around twenty," Boost admitted. Sinker looked away.

"Not so young after all, am I?" Zhade smirked. Sinker rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah. Anyways, I happen to like lemon, and I chose strawberry accidentally," Sinker retorted as his face scrunched up at the mention of the "vile" flavor.

Zhade shrugged, "Might as well," as she traded her ration. Crunching her teeth into the meal, she nodded. "Not bad," she turned to Wolffe, "Actually, Master Koon told me why you had heard of my last name before," said commander raised his eyebrow in question. "It turns out that I apparently I have a younger sister, that's a jedi," with a thin smile as they could hear the slight annoyance in her voice.

"They didn't tell you?!" astonishment filled Boost's voice. Bewilderment took over the other member's faces.

"Yep," they could clearly hear the emotional straining through her voice, "turns out that they didn't tell me since it might mess up my training."

'Wow', Comet thought, 'I couldn't imagine not having my brothers by my side.' Before they could carry on, Plo Koon emerged from the doors of the mess hall.

"It's past everybody's shifts that are happening, time for curfew if you are done in the mess hall and gym," he stated. He saw his trainee stifle a laugh before she looked around and, realized he was serious, dropped her jaw and raise one of her contrasting blond brows. He knew he shouldn't have let Yoda take her out on her twenty first birthday. Focusing once more on the mess, he saw many of his troopers leaving, and the Wolf Pack leading the twi'lek to the rest of the ship. Oh god.


	3. Training

As they finished their breakfast, the general entered the mess hall and announced, "We will have a training session in the afternoon. You will be getting used to both fighting with two jedi and learning my Zhade's fighting style. She uses a new jedi fighting form that Master Windu has made. She is still learning the technique, and it is only mastered by few so it is new to your training history."

"On your left," the three heads of the 104th were in the front of the selected ones in the battalion, deflecting the shots and taking down the programmed droids that marched onwards with a metallic 'clang' to the Wolf Pack's positions on the white cement-like matter of the training room. Making very precise and narrow escapes to the oncoming stun blasters, the men and single twi'lek were starting to advance, taking out 'clankers' one by one. The general suddenly gave a nod to his master-in-training, and she jumped to the ceiling and, using a tool from her belt, stuck the ceiling wall. Scrunching her body, she switched the tool to her feet to deflect the gunshots pelting the ceiling. Stepping towards the droid's positions, she ran across wall to come to the abandoned area where the metal machines had started their attack. With that, she was able to drop down with a flip and ignited her lightsaber once again with her feet on the ground to begin to run to the distracted droids. Slicing her way through them she took on a portion of the droids who had turned towards her back assault. Flipping through the droids to cut through them, she smirked as she cut through the last of them that her attacking her. Calming herself with a moment's of shutting her eyes, she began to cut through the last few droids that there left. Once the droids were gone, the jedi deactivated their weapons and put them onto their as the soldiers let her guns fall to their sides. Turning her head up to her master, she nodded and bowed ever so slightly and a silent conversation was exchanged.

"Good work all of you. You adapted to the strategy very quickly and effectively. All of you are dismissed," as the men nodded and they left.

Zhade waited for all of them to leave and turned to her master. "I felt it a lot this time. Maybe I should go back to Mace or even Vos for more training about it," putting her head into her calloused hands as she lowered her head a little. With her head, her lekkus moved to the front of her shoulders.

Plo put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Your eyes never changed, which is a very good change for a year or two ago. Zhade, you calmed yourself when necessary. If you are truly feeling troubled about this after your mind moves from when you're in battle you should meditate. I would say to only go to Master Windu or Vos if you are extremely concerned that the form is making your mindset worse. Remember, only Master Windu has mastered the form, and I remember even he had flunks in his training. It will take time and patience to master in this skill, and you are already skilled in it. You incorporate your martial arts and acrobatics precisely and gracefully to your fighting. You are very talented, and it takes time to get very good at any form. Trust me Zhade, you are doing fine." The twi'lek looked up at him with gleaming eyes that he had known for so long and she smiled with her eyes and mouth. With silent gratitude, the woman walked aside her master as they headed out of the training room that had long since been deserted of men. "I will check for any reports, but we still are on leave. I believe Master Yoda and Windu are pulling strings to get the battalion used to a second commander." With that, they parted ways and headed towards their respected areas.

Starting her shift, Zhade headed to the medical lab. When she entered the sterile white room, she found Cam checking vitals on one or two of the men in the 104th and making sure the medications were in their respectable drawers and cabinets. Shifting her eyes around the room, she spotted three men that were lying on their backs on the cots. Walking over to Cam's side, she inspected the trooper that he saw treating. There were only a few scratches, and the only thing that he needed was to be treated for a huge bump on his forehead that had a blue hue to it. Wrinkling her 'eyebrows' she turned to the medic that was gathering supplies for his brother's head wound. "What happened?" she asked while eyeing the injury wearily.

"He was spying on the 501st," the slightest smirk could be seen on Cam's face as he conveyed the information. The clone that was being tended to looked away, a red tint to the olive skin.

Dissolving into soft chuckles, she quirked her eyebrows together, "Still, what happened?"

One of the other clones in the med bay spoke up, "Styles got a couple boots chucked at him. The 501st have really good aim," mirth clearly in his voice. The men under the spotlight got even redder as the med bay burst into quite snickers.

Turning to the medic who had gone back to working on the clone's head she questioned, "What can I do?"

"You help Rose with his leg," pointing to the clone on the stretcher opposite of him.

Turning around, she faced a clone with a long gash that ran through his left leg. Sliding across the med bay, she went over to Rose and examined the damaged leg. Looking up to the guy, she noticed him grimacing momentarily as she slightly marked the parts of the leg which needed help. "So, you're Rose?" she asked quietly.

"Yep. ARC-2957 sir. Got the scratch from a mission on Orto Plutonia. We startled some of the natives."

"Heard of some of them. I can see why it's this deep of a gash. I'm going to clean it with antibiotics and then put you under. I'm classified by the temple for medical teachings. That's okay, right?" With a quick nod of approval, she began the procedure. Once she was sure he was under, she took a clean needle and started to stitch up the ARC trooper. Being careful to keep it as neat as possible, she finished the last stitch, cut the thin thread and, remembering her intensive training from the highest healers in the temple, put a bacta pad onto the stitches. Turning around to clean the surgical needle, she rammed into Cam, who stood centimeters from herself, looking down with a calculating eye. "What?" she asked tiredly.

"Sir, although your help is appreciated, you were not assigned to give stitches to Rose, and don't have the proper training. This could have resulted in a mistake," Cam said sharply, looking over his dozing brother.

"Cam, I was trained in the medical field by the healers in the temple, one all types of injuries both on other people as well as myself. I understand your worries, but I am in fact trained to do this. If you doubt me, you can ask Master Koon. Also, if you look at the stitches, they are very straight," she replied with a fairly exhausted look in her hazel hues. It was very late, for god sakes. With a sceptical eye, the medic passed the twi'lek and looked thoroughly along the line where the gash was slashed upon the leg of the passed out patient.

Turning around with a now relieved look on his face, he nodded. "Sorry sir, just making sure."

The commander nodded with a small smile. Looking around the lab, she saw that the only awake people within the bay were Cam and herself. The other occupants, three or so, had curtains around the cots. "Will you be okay on your own, or do you need my help with anything?" she turned around to ask the clone with, what she could see now in proper lighting and being the right amount of distance away, two small tattoos along his right cheek that formed a small phrase in Mando'a. He nodded and started to head over to the inventory when she asked, "What does your tattoo say?"

"Family is more than blood. I got it after a mission on Naboo. They were very caring and nice." Understanding, she went to clean the needle and throw out the leftover string. Looking at the the clock, she saw that it is 0300 hours. After going into the deserted mess hall and getting the strongest caffeine, she entered the also empty gymnasium and started stretch.


	4. The Malevolence

After a couple other training sessions, most being with the full 104th battalion, Plo saw that they were ready to start going on missions with his apprentice. The twenty-five year old twi'lek was able to cooperate very well with all of his troopers and had befriended mostly all of them. The most closest she was, though, was Wolffe. They could work almost perfectly after these few weeks. He called the Zhade and part of the Wolf Pack to the briefing room. When they were all their gathered, he brought up a hologram of The Malevolence. "We have identified that General Grievous is aboard this ship. When other of our forces have confronted the ship, we have only found them destroyed. Our mission is to find this and hopefully take it out. We will be taking a cruiser to the last known location, which they should be at." Everyone studied the holo projection.

"Brace for impact!" Everyone on the bridge grabbed onto the closest part of the ship as the wave of electricity covered the ship. Every part of technology on the ship flickered off. The then Malevolence started to fire at the ship they were all aboard. Zhade, Sinker, Boost, Wolffe, and Plo all ran with their fellow crew mates to the escape pods. All gathering in one, the five escaped the star destroyer, watching their ship get destroyed by the blasts of the Separatist ship.

Zhade and Wolffe watched as Plo, Sinker, and Boost exited the escape pod as the battle droids. They looked at each other as they took control of the ship. Wolffe started to up the frequency of the distress signal as Zhade looked for any oxygen tanks she could use with lightsaber at ready, to no avail though. She snapped her head up as she heard a snap from her fellow commander's direction. With a distraught look, she realized that one of the droids had broken a point in the glass of the front window of the escape pod. Running to the opening point, she already felt lightheaded. Turning her head to look at Wolffe, she saw that he had made contact with someone. Letting out a sigh of relief that ended with a whooping cough, she looked up to see that the droids were taken out. She shouted to Plo, "We got a transmission from Skywalker and Tano, they're headed our way and will be here shortly." She plopped down on one of the vacant chairs and rested her head. Then, with the shouts of her fellow crewmates, everything turned black.

"Zhade," Wolffe panicked as he too started to become extremely lightheaded. Holding her slumped head and turning, she found that she wouldn't respond. Turning his head frantically to his general, he felt like the pod started to move. As it kept moving, the pod turned to face a ship. When it dropped to the ground, he stood up with the young twi'lek around the ship still coughing and felt a wash of relief wash over him as he saw Skywalker and his padawan come through the door. Then they noticed him, he saw Skywalker scan the insides of the pod and give a questioning look at his general and himself as his eyes landed on the fellow commander.

"I will explain later Skywalker, but she needs help immediately," Plo urged the young jedi knight. Little soka put her arm around him as the young general took his apprentice from Wolffe's arms as the medical droid entered the bay. It went over to his commander, who was looking fairly light headed. The young togruta took him to the pilot's area and set him down.

Anakin looked expectantly at the Kel Dor. "Well?"

"That is my apprentice, Zhade Secura. She is Aayla's sister, and is a special operation Jedi. She is a knight of two to three years. You were not supposed to know of her yet."

"Wait, what?! Why the kriffing hell were we not supposed to know about her?" Anakin cried in disbelief.

"Skywalker," Plo sighed, "no one, save for Masters Yoda, Windu, Ti, and myself know of her, as we created the program. It is a safety measure to keep the project within ourselves," with a tired tone as he looked into the vast darkness to stretched out, only accompanied by the debris and themselves.

The young knight physically relaxed. "We'll still talk about later."

His padawan rolled her eyes, "Skyguy, it sounds like Master Plo has this under control."

As Kix was running more tests from their surprise guest that had arrived with the generals in critical condition when she woke up. His ears perked up as he heard a small groan come from the patient. Turning around from his work, his eyes settled on the newly awake twi'lek that was sleepily blinking her eyes around the medical bay. Heading over to the side of the bed, he began to speak. "I will go get General Koon and Commander Wolffe. You gave them quite a scare." With that, she gave a louder groan and turned around to try to stand up, up the medic lightly pushed her shoulders back to the cot. Getting a slightly dirty and confused look he chastised, "You are still healing. Don't strain yourself."

The commander looked up at the man with an intricate pattern on his shaved head and rested back down. "Yeah, yeah," she sighed, "anyway, what's your name?"

"Kix of the 501st battalion, sir. I am the head medic of the battalion. You just need to lay down and relax while I contact some of the higher ups," he introduced in the calm voice that he always used with his patients. He pressed a couple buttons on his wrist and looked up. "They'll be coming to the medical bay soon. General Koon and the Wolf Pack have been waiting." As soon as he said that, the door opened quicker than she thought it would, and said men came barging into the room, the Kel Dor leading the way. Arriving at the side of the bed, her master scanned her over, observing for the any signs of external damage, and was relieved to see she was fine physically.

"How are you feeling Zhade? Do you need anything?"

His trainee smiled slightly, "No, I'm fine. Are you all okay?" the men around her nodded. Pushing herself to a sitting position with a slight wince, she looked around with realization. "How many know?" slightly rubbing her arm in the process.

"Only a select few. The general, commander, captain, and Kix as you have met are the only ones who learned that you were on board. We explained the situation to all of them. They will not tell anyone, you are fine. It had to happen sometime," the jedi master explained, laying a hand on the the young twi'lek's shoulder. She looked up at him, and nodded solemnly. He knew that she took the special operation part of her jedi training very seriously. Looking up at the medic that was behind the cluster of men that was crowding around the medical nod, who nodded when their eyes met. With that, she drifted back into a deep sleep.


End file.
